1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clothes dryer, and more particularly, to a clothes dryer capable of reducing a fabrication cost and enhancing operation efficiency.
2. Description of the Conventional Art
Generally, a clothes dryer is separately installed from a washing machine thereby to automatically dry wet clothes that has completed a washing operation. According to a drying method, the clothes dryer can be divided into a condensation type and an exhaust type.
The condensation type clothes dryer is provided with a heat exchanger for condensing moisture included in air that has passed through a drum therein. The condensation type clothes dryer circulates air therein thus to discharge condensed water outwardly, and heats dry air by a heater thus to supply into the drum, thereby drying clothes inside the drum.
The exhaust type clothes dryer sucks external air, heats the sucked air by a heater thus to introduce into a drum, and discharges air that has passed through the drum outwardly, thereby drying clothes inside the drum.
As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional exhaust type clothes dryer comprises: a cabinet 100 having an inlet 101 for introducing clothes and a door 11 for opening and closing the inlet 101 at a front side thereof; a drum 12 rotatably installed in the cabinet 100 and for accommodating clothes; a drum rotation device 14 for rotating the drum 12; an air circulation device 15 for sucking external air into the cabinet 100 and thereby introducing into the drum 12, and discharging air that has passed through the drum 12 outwardly; and a heater 16 for heating air introduced into the drum 12.
The drum rotation device 14 includes: a driving motor 13 arranged at one side of the drum 12 and generating a rotational force; a pulley 14a installed at a rotational shaft of the driving motor 13; and a belt 14b installed to cover outer circumferences of the drum 12 and the pulley 14a, for transmitting a rotational force of the driving motor 13 to the drum 12.
The air circulation device 15 includes: a suction port 15a formed at a rear panel of the cabinet 100, for sucking external air into the cabinet 100; a suction duct 15b respectively connected to inside of the cabinet 100 and an opening portion 12b formed at a rear side of the drum 12, for introducing air that has been sucked into the cabinet 100 into the drum 12; a fan 15c installed in the suction duct 15b and connected to the driving motor 13 thus to be rotated, for sucking external air and thereby introducing into the drum 12; an exhaust duct 15d connected to an opening portion 12a formed at a front side of the drum 12, for discharging air that has passed through the drum 12; and an exhaust port 150 connected to the exhaust duct 15d, for discharging air that has passed through the exhaust duct 15d to outside of the dryer.
As shown in FIG. 2, the exhaust port 150 is composed of: an exhaust chamber 152 connected to the exhaust duct 15d; first and second exhaust pipes 154 and 156 respectively diverged to the left side and the right side of the cabinet 100 from the exhaust chamber 152; and a third exhaust pipe 158 diverged to the rear side of the cabinet 100.
Exits 154a and 156a of the first and second exhaust pipes 154 and 156 are arranged at positions linearly symmetric to each other with respect to a horizontal center axis H of the cabinet 100. The exits 154a and 156a are connected to exhaust holes 102a and 104a formed at a left panel 102 and a right panel 104 constituting the left wall and the right wall of the cabinet 100.
The first and second exhaust pipes 154 and 156 guide air that has passed through the exhaust duct 15d and the exhaust chamber 152 to the left side or the right side of the cabinet 100.
The first, second, and third exhaust pipes 154, 156, and 158 are respectively opened or closed according to an installation position of the clothes dryer, and thereby a direction of air discharged to outside of the dryer is set.
However, in the conventional clothes dryer, since the exits 154a and 156a of the first and second exhaust pipes 154 and 156 are linearly symmetric to each other on the basis of the horizontal center axis H of the cabinet 100, positions of the exhaust holes 102a and 104a formed at the left panel 102 and the right panel 104 of the cabinet 100 are different.
According to this, the left panel 102 where the exhaust hole 102a is formed can not be assembled to the right side of the cabinet 100, and the right panel 104 where the exhaust hole 104a is formed can not be assembled to the left side of the cabinet 100. Therefore, even if the left panel 102 and the right panel 104 are formed as similar shapes to each other, a process for forming the exhaust hole 102a at the left panel 102 and a process for forming the exhaust hole 104a at the right panel 104 have to be individually performed. According to this, the number of fabrication processes is increased thus to lower an operation efficiency and to increase a fabrication cost.